Electrical fires are a big concern for fire officials

HASTINGS, Neb. (KSNB) - It’s one of the biggest fears for business owners, that a fire has burned the place they worked so hard to build. That happened to the owners of Hajny Auto Sales this past weekend. Fire officials said it could have been prevented.

After crews put out the fire at Hajny, they investigated leading them the conclusion that the fire was started as a result of a space heater plugged into an extension cord.

Murphy said that in recent weeks he’s dealt with a couple fires that were electrical in nature, and nationally in 2020 the US Fire Administration reported that there were over 16,000 office and store fires nationally. Which caused over $900 million in property damage.

Murphy said because of a fire alarm and sprinklers, a business fire in Hastings was stopped before it could millions of dollars in damage.

“In just the last month here in Hastings we had a sprinkler system activate and that resulted in saving almost $9 million worth of building,” Murphy said. “We just recently had a fire at Walmart and the quick actions of those employees by activating the extinguishing system saved a tremendous amount of damage.”

Hastings Fire Chief Brad Starling said the department offers services to help business prevent fires.

“We want the community to know that we’re an available resource and we are happy to come out and do a fire safety inspection, whether it is a private residents or a business, we’re happy to provide those services, that’s what we’re here for that’s our job and that way we can make sure that businesses stay working and keep helping building the community,” Starling said.

Starling told Local4 News if anyone wants to set up one of those inspections to call the Hastings Fire Department at 402-461-2350.

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